Taiwan CIB busts biggest and most-visited piracy website

　The Telecommunications Investigation Corps under the Criminal Investigation Bureau issued a press release reporting that they have taken down the top video piracy website in Taiwan, 8maple.ru (Chinese website name: 楓林網).  Two operators of the website have utilized offshore web hosting servers to upload and provide to users popular Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Chinese, European and American dramas, movies, and TV programs free of charge, and also made illegal advertising revenue from the click-through rate for advertisements placed on the website, for which the two operators are suspected of committing the offenses of illegal reproduction, public broadcasting, and public transmission as defined by the Copyright Act of Taiwan. 

　For the ultimate purpose of stemming online infringement, the Telecommunications Investigation Corps and the US’ Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment and the Motion Picture Association initiate international cooperation for the first time, share intelligence, conduct investigation to gather evidence and further bring lawsuit across different jurisdictions.  According to the result of investigation, the value involved in this infringement occurrence is estimated to be nearly TWD1 billion.  This case has been handed over to the Taiyuan District Prosecutors Office for further investigation.  

　The two operators, surnamed Chen and Chuang, respectively, are identified after several months of surveillance and illicit financial flows tracking.  The police have frozen and seized Chen’s and Chuang’s illicit money and real estate properties worth more than TWD60 million.  (April 2020) 

/CCS